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Experiments And Optimizations In Fermenting Milk To Yogurt At Home

  • Writer: Harshal
    Harshal
  • Jan 13, 2024
  • 3 min read

Updated: Mar 10

Kitchen Trials To Get Quality Homemade Yogurt While Helping Save Meal Prep Time

Not everyone can milk cows in their own yard to get fresh milk. But, everyone can (but don’t) make milk products like yogurt at home.

If you like the idea of making your own food ingredients, here's how we make yogurt.

I’ve written more tips from our meal prep process here.

home-made fresh yogurt in a cup.
home-made fresh yogurt in a cup.

When you make fermented foods at home, such as cheese, bread, yogurt, kombucha, or beer, it helps you cultivate healthy gut bacteria, control the quality of ingredients, and reduce your groceries SKUs.

Process Overview

Our process improved both the quality and quantity of homemade yogurt. Here's the process overview with a visual from veganyogurtmakers.

  1. Heat milk until it's steaming, while stirring.

  2. Cool down, while stirring.

  3. Introduce live bacterial culture. Stir.

  4. Keep in a warm place for 8-12 hours.

traditional yogurt making process adopted for fridge, thermometer, and saucepan.
traditional yogurt making process adopted for fridge, thermometer, and saucepan.

Process Modifications

We use a large saucepan as a double boiler base, preventing milk from scalding.

Double-boiler using a stainless steel saute pan.
Double-boiler using a stainless steel saute pan.

  • We heat water in the kettle to put in the double boiler, which saves time.

  • We utilize a 5-liter stock pot for bulk preparation.

Milk in 5L Stock pot with Temperature probe.
Milk in 5L Stock pot with Temperature probe.

  • It stirs at about 20 RPM which is sufficient in this initial stage.

Next-level bulk preparation by stirring 3 pots together.
Next-level bulk preparation by stirring 3 pots together.

  • Once the milk reaches 8070°C, we manually stir at approximately 60 RPM. The faster we stir, the more steam is released. This helps condense the milk and make a creamy thick yogurt.

Manually stirring hot milk.
Manually stirring hot milk.

  • We accelerated the milk condensation process by splitting the same amount of milk in two large stock pots, as the surface area increases, rate of heating increases, and we can stir faster when less percentage of the pot is filled with milk.

splitting stirring time and milk across pots increases bulk prep and lets us stir faster without spillage.
splitting stirring time and milk across pots increases bulk prep and lets us stir faster without spillage.

  • After stirring for 20-25 minutes, we start to cool the milk.

  • Edit in 2025: We reduced our stirring time above 80*C to 5 minutes and the result is still a thick delicious yogurt but with less time.

  • We use an oven baking tray filled with cold water and ice packs for swift cooling.

Cooling down hot milk and the stockpot using ice packs.
Cooling down hot milk and the stockpot using ice packs.

  • Edit in 2025: We alternatively move the milk to a different big stockpot.

Using an additional cool stock surrounded by ice packs and cold water to cool down hot milk.
Using an additional cool stock surrounded by ice packs and cold water to cool down hot milk.

  • We stir continuously and monitor the temperature with a thermometer probe in the milk.

Keep the boxes ready for milk plus yogurt culture.
Keep the boxes ready for milk plus yogurt culture.

  • Once the milk reaches between 42-46°C, we sieve the milk into containers and add the bacterial culture. Using the sieve reduces cream formation.

Pour heated and cooled down milk through a sieve using a ladle, then add yogurt culture..
Pour heated and cooled down milk through a sieve using a ladle, then add yogurt culture..

  • Add one teaspoon of yogurt. If you are starting, start with a store-bought yogurt that has the bacteria mentioned in its ingredients.

  • We have 3 yogurt makers, each with a one-liter capacity. These maintain a consistent fermentation temperature.

A yogurt maker from Alibaba to maintain warmth overnight.
A yogurt maker from Alibaba to maintain warmth overnight.

  •  Alternatively, an oven preheated to 80°C (the maximum for our plastic boxes) works. We keep the pilot light on overnight.

Oven pilot light on and boxes spread out.
Oven pilot light on and boxes spread out.

  •  The oven works as a storage place for the cultured milk to sit for 8-12 hours.

Milk fermenting into yogurt in oven.
Milk fermenting into yogurt in oven.

  • We’ve tried making yogurt without the pilot light on and it doesn’t work well. I measured that the pilot light takes less than 10W. But, looks like that is sufficient to maintain a warm temperature.

3 yogurt makers on overnight.
3 yogurt makers on overnight.
Enjoy the creamy thicky yogurt.
Enjoy the creamy thicky yogurt.

Other Meal Prep Posts

Here are all the posts in this series:



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